"We said from day one it's not going to be perfect and there are going to be years when it's extremely controversial," Kramer said.

NEWPORT
BEACH, Calif. – Rarely in the history of college football has one man been
criticized so severely, so thoroughly, so randomly, so unfairly more than a
decade after his retirement.

Roy
Kramer, this is your life.

Kramer retired
as Southeastern Conference commissioner in May 2002, but he's never escaped his
unofficial title of "Father of the BCS" after he spearheaded the creation of the
No. 1 vs. No. 2 national championship game 16 years ago.

Along the
way he has been sautéed by mouthy radio talk show hosts who don't know squat
about his intelligence and character, jabbed by poison penned columnists
questioning his integrity and motives.

Late
Monday night when the clock flips to zeroes in the BCS national championship
game here between No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Auburn, Kramer passes his
bulletproof vest to Bill Hancock, director of the new College Football Playoff that
starts next season. It will feature the top four teams chosen by a 13-person committee.
The teams will be seeded, play semifinals and meet in Arlington, Texas to
decide the national title.

"It's Bill's
problem now," said a chuckling 82-year-old Kramer, who'll be in Rose Bowl Stadium
to watch the Seminoles and Tigers bid the BCS adieu.

Hancock
worked many years with Kramer when both were involved with the NCAA men's
basketball tournament selection committee. He knows the upcoming playoff system
wouldn't be possible if it hadn't been for Kramer's foresight in 1998 when the
BCS was born.

"Roy
understands cause and effect beyond anybody else I've ever known," Hancock
said. "He has phenomenal intelligence and courage and he knew the BCS would be
successful. He knew it would be great for the game."

The BCS
was created from Kramer's passion for football. It stemmed from his three
decades plus as a Michigan high school coach where he won state championships in
three different divisions and as a college coach for 11 seasons at Central
Michigan where his 1974 team captured the Division 2 national championship.

When
he became SEC commissioner in January 1990 after serving as Vanderbilt's
athletic director, he took football in the league to a new level. He created
the conference championship game in 1992 and negotiated a multi-million dollar
TV contract with CBS that provided the SEC coast-to-coast exposure.

But
beyond the SEC, Kramer was concerned about college football as a whole. He felt
there was more interest in the NFL and thought the college game was falling
short with unattractive bowl matchups in its top-tiered postseason games.

So Kramer
enlisted the help of fellow major conference commissioners to devise a plan to
create more yearlong interest in college football while protecting the bowls.
SEC executive assistant commissioner Mark Womack, then-associate commissioner
Charles Bloom and computer ratings guru Jeff Sagarin were also key figures on
Kramer's team bringing the idea of fruition.

"We
wanted to create new interest in college football and we also wanted to improve
and maintain the bowl system," Kramer said. "The bowl structure is extremely
important to all levels of college football.

"We put
together as best we could (using polls and various computer ratings) the two
teams we felt were No. 1 and No. 2 at the end of the season. That's always
controversial, because there's always going to be discussion whether this team
is better than that team.

"We said
from day one it's not going to be perfect and there are going to be years when
it's extremely controversial. That's part of the risk and the challenge when
you put something like this together. Most years, it worked out pretty well."

And there
were some times that it didn't. The most glaring example was Auburn going 13-0
in 2004 but getting shutout of playing in the national championship game. No. 1
USC and No. 2 Oklahoma started the season ranked in the two top spots and never
lost a game.

Yet
Kramer believed there were far more positives to the BCS than negatives.

"The BCS
created games that had never taken place in the past, because of bowl tie-ins
and conferences didn't cross over to the other bowls in those ties," Kramer
said. "The Big Ten and Pac 10 (now Pac 12) always played in the Rose Bowl. Nobody
else ever played in the Rose Bowl.

"Everybody
said the BCS was so restricted, that we were guilty of anti-trust. The BCS
really broadened the participants far beyond than anything that had taken place
in the past. Look at the schools that never participated in major bowls before that
suddenly had the access that the BCS gave them.

"I doubt
there weren't very many people who heard of Boise State before the BCS got
Boise in the Fiesta Bowl and beat Oklahoma. You had teams like Utah and Hawaii
in the Sugar Bowl, TCU in the Rose Bowl and Northern Illinois in Orange Bowl.
We've had some great games between conferences across the country that I don't
think would have ever taken place had it not been for the BCS structure."

Initially,
the biggest hurdle was getting the major bowls to step outside their comfort
zone knowing they may not get the traditional conference champion that had
always been tied to their bowls.

Kramer said
it was tough convincing the Rose Bowl to play ball. The Big 10 and Pac 10
champs had always played in the Rose Bowl.

"The Rose Bowl's people fear was that both the
Big 10 and Pac 10 champs would finish 1-2 in the BCS one year, and that year
the national championship would be played in another BCS bowl instead of the
Rose," Kramer said "We researched it, and discovered that situation had only
happened one time in 50 years that those leagues were Nos. 1-2 nationally.

"Of
course, the first year when our first BCS title game was to be played in the
Fiesta Bowl, the Rose Bowl people called me in November when UCLA (Pac 10) and
Ohio State (Big Ten) were ranked as the top two teams.

"They
said, 'Roy, you said this wasn't going to happen.' I said, 'Just think of this.
If it happens, it won't happen again for 50 years.' "

The Rose
Bowl folks didn't appreciate Kramer's deadpan humor. But as it always did most
of the time through the years, both teams lost late in the season and there was
rarely a dispute about Nos. 1 and 2 in the end.

The BCS
created season-long interest, which Kramer had hoped would be part of the
impact.

"The BCS
elevated the regular season," Kramer said. "It made every game significant, and
that's critical to college football because the regular season is where the
heart of the game is.

"Football
has never been a postseason game to a degree like basketball. Basketball you
boil down to one month every season in March. It doesn't really matter what
happens in December.

"College
football is different. What happens in September and October is enormously
important as you come to the end of the season.

"With the
creation of the BCS, all of a sudden we had people in Tuscaloosa, in Knoxville,
in Tallahassee interested in what was going in Oregon and in Ohio and Texas and
vice-versa. It expanded that national feel that has been very good for the
game, TV ratings and its appeal across the country."

That
didn't stop Kramer from getting peppered with criticism every year, even after
he left the SEC and retired to the Knoxville suburb of Maryville.

"The BCS kept
more call-in shows in business, all the call-in hosts should have thanked us," said
Kramer, who probably didn't read the book titled 'Death to the BCS.'

"One
night driving home to Birmingham, I'm listening to a call-in show and the show
hosts were applying the BCS formula to choosing NFL wildcard playoff teams. I
said 'Well, we've finally arrived.'

"Criticism
was just a part of it. You know me well enough that never bothered me. I took
it with a grain of salt. I'd always say, 'At least they're talking about
college football.' That was one of the principal reasons we got the thing going
in the first place was to create that interest."

Mike
Slive, who succeeded Kramer as SEC commissioner, said the BCS always did what
it was intended to do.

"When it
was created, it was designed to be the final word, the do all end all," Slive
said. "The rest of the world saw it as a first step."

Kramer
said he never absolutely knew if the BCS would lead to a playoff. He agreed
that the all-SEC BCS national championship game between No. 1 LSU and No. 2
Alabama a couple of years ago probably speeded the process in establishing a playoff.

But now
with the playoff just around the bend, he doesn't think the criticism will wane.

"There is
no perfect way to pick four teams, whether you deal with it in a committee or a
poll or a combination," Kramer said. "There will always be controversy.

"As you
move down in numbers, the teams look alike. Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 are a lot more
alike than Nos. 1 and 2. Almost without a doubt, all of them will have one-loss
almost every year. Now you've got to say 'Who did you lose to?'

"You've
got to make a subjective decision. And that becomes a more controversial
situation."

Kramer
said he would have preferred to see a playoff that included the three highest
ranked conference champions and a wildcard. He also doesn't want the playoff
field expanded past four teams.

"I'd be
concerned if we went much farther than this," he said. "If you get to the point
where you've expanded it to too many teams, then it cheapens the regular
season. That could really hurt college football."

As a man
who has had a BCS bulls-eye on his back since the late 90s, Kramer has some
advice for the playoff selection committee.

"Don't
get pressured by public opinion, which will be very difficult not to do,"
Kramer said. "Don't let national media outlets pre-determine the four teams for
you. If you disagree with them, you have to be prepared to say, 'This what we
felt was best and why.' "

Finally,
Kramer thinks the selection should place heavy emphasis on non-conference
scheduling.

"The only
people who break down non-conference schedules are the computers," Kramer said.
"I'm concerned the committee won't do that to the strong degree that's needed."

Probably
the fact that Kramer created the BCS kept him from being named to the playoff
selection committee. Maybe the priority was a getting fresh start to the new
postseason approach with no ties to the BCS.

But if
there is anyone who needs to be on this committee, it's Kramer.

"Roy was
a tremendous basketball committee member and an ideal chairman," Hancock said.
"He can discern information, throw out the invalid and keep the valid. His
demeanor made him a great chair. You always knew where Roy stood, but he was a
consensus builder. He's just a great leader."

Someone
like that shouldn't be on the sidelines. Get the 'ol Coach back in the game.